Vertically moving & shooting Arcade STGs per year from 82-03

[Cagar]

Except it has 2 loops.

I don't like it either, but it has nothing to do with the game being polished

[Despatche]

technically it has three loops buuuut (we need three loop hack!!!!)

also doj(bl) and ket are really 100% equivalent. either way i'd pick doj because it's a little easier to get into and i like the scoring system a little better

now if ket had been a proper mr. stoic game things would be different

[heisenbergman]

At least try out Gun.Smoke (1985), just to experience the terror of being hunted down by rabid, merciless popcorn. And its superb terrain-bound strafing action. For the love of god don't be like this guy and miss that there's three buttons!

'85 is Gun.Smoke.
Don't let that Exed Exes guy tell you differently.

Um wow Gun.Smoke is nifty. Mapping three buttons to shoot in three directions is pretty clever. I watched vids of it on YouTube and saw that the character was shooting in multiple directions while only moving vertically and couldn't tell exactly how they implemented that. Pretty cool.

[Ed Oscuro]

1991 is a tough one, isn't it? Lethal Thunder isn't the worst game ever, but the presentation is pretty bad (lol that powerup meter) and of course autofire destroys it (another one of Irem's press-to-the-screen-edge games, except this time unintentionally).

A better choice would be Vimana, which isn't really the best Toaplan game by a shot, but is kind of in the same tradition as Truxton. Autofire does a number on that one too, though the basic gameplay remains intact.

There's also Detana! Twin Bee, aka Bells 'n' Whistles (thanks Konami US/World/whoever gave us shit names for so many non-Japanese releases!) which is okay, I guess, but not my thing at all. You might like it, but I think it follows a pattern of many Konami/Namco games of focusing more on really strange systems and presentation over the good ol' playable Raiden clone.

1991 is a great year for horis, though, unquestionably. There are a number of them from that year alone (including from Konami) that I'd choose before any of the verts listed.

[heisenbergman]

For 1991, that's more than one person now recommending against Lethal Thunder and more than one person recommending either Detana!!, Vimana or Gun Frontier.

I think I'll go with Gun Frontier as my first pick for '91 and Detana!! TwinBee as my #2 based on youtube vids.

List looks like this now

R=Vertically Moving/Shooting Arcade STGs per year - one game a year limit has been ditchedR=Year & Games R=1982 & Xevious R=1983 & Mega Zone Star Jacker R=1984 & 1942 Star Force R=1985 & Terra Cresta Gun.Smoke Exed Exes R=1986 & Scramble Formation [Tokio] Slap Fight R=1987 & Twin Cobra Flying/Sky Shark R=1988 & Image Fight Truxton [Tatsujin] R=1989 & Fire Shark Omega Fighter R=1990 & Raiden R=1991 & Gun Frontier Detana!!! TwinBee R=1992 & Dogyuun Truxton II [Tatsujin-Oh] R=1993 & Batsugun R=1994 & Rayforce Raiden DX R=1995 & Donpachi Strikers 1945 R=1996 & Battle Garegga R=1997 & Strikers 1945 II Dodonpachi R=1998 & Armed Police Batrider R=1999 & Giga Wing Battle Bakraid R=2000 & Mars Matrix Dragon Blaze R=2001 & Ikaruga R=2002 & DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou R=2003 & Ketsui Espgaluda

[BIL]

Um wow Gun.Smoke is nifty. Mapping three buttons to shoot in three directions is pretty clever. I watched vids of it on YouTube and saw that the character was shooting in multiple directions while only moving vertically and couldn't tell exactly how they implemented that. Pretty cool.

It's absolutely critical to the game, as well. With the hyper-aggressive popcorn, limited-range shot and terrain obstacles, you can't get by without exploiting the angled shots, and standing in one place for long is suicide so that means plenty of strafing. Best part is that the enemies are generally in the same boat as you (range limit, terrain-bound and if you're playing well, dealing with murderously aggressive opposition) so it gives the whole thing an incredible, personal intensity.

You can actually shoot in six directions! *smack* I mean, you have six shot types! Press 1+2 and 2+3 for midpoints to the left or right, or 1+3 to shoot extra-wide to both sides simultaneously. The former are sometimes useful when you don't have the option of moving to hit an enemy sitting between your side and forward shot trajectories. The latter I generally don't recommend, this is most definitely not a game where you want to be dividing your attention between two threats for more than a split-second.

[heisenbergman]

You can actually shoot in six directions! Press 1+2 and 2+3 for midpoints to the left or right

Wow, thanks for mentioning this. I've been caught in a few situations where the target has moved to my side past the range of the angled shot and I thought I couldn't hit him anymore. Great stuff.

[BIL]

Haha, edited my post slightly since six directions isn't quite accurate. But yeah, the altered side shots are very useful. The balance to all this frontal offense is the total lack of rear offense, so you want to be exploiting both Billy Bob's speed and firing radius to keep enemies off your back. It's not the end of the world if something's behind you, with practice you can usually regain the advantage with a bit of footwork. You definitely want to minimise this occurrence, though.

It really helps to play this game on a setup with three buttons in a row, either a stick or keyboard or something like a Saturn pad. On the typical SNES button layout I find it best to put 2 (forward) on the lowermost button of the diamond and 1/3 (left/right) to the appropriate sides but YMMV.

Something I had to figure out on my own, re: powerups - there's only one level, "on" basically. After the first is gained they just stack, with one deducted upon death. As long as you've got one left in the stack you won't lose the powerup. Note that just like your reserve lives, even if the onscreen powerup stock appears maxed it'll keep stacking. You can build up quite a head of steam with a little practice.

If it helps, the powerups are Boots (speed up), Rifle (shot range up), Bullet (shot frequency up) and the more obvious horse, which is basically a force field plus a further speedup (allows you to take a few hits at the expense of a larger hitbox. Poor horse. :[ ). Everything else is points or a 1UP (the classic Capcom Yashichi icon), iirc, besides the Buffalo Skull penalty item which knocks your powerup stocks down by one.

[emphatic]

Nice thread, I'll try to make a list too. Later.